Variation of ultrasound image lateral spectrum with assumed speed of sound and true scatterer density

Quantitative Hepatic Fat Quantification in Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Using Ultrasound-Based Techniques: A Review of Literature and Their Diagnostic Performance

“…The technical origins of this approach are based on the work of Burckhard et al and Wagner et al, who recognized the similarity between laser and ultrasound speckle, and were able to demonstrate analytically increased brightness and reduced speckle size in the focal region (Burckhardt 1978; Wagner et al 1983). These insights have been taken advantage of in several settings involving speed of sound, for example, image quality improvement (Napolitano et al 2006), aberration correction (Nock and Trahey 1985), as well as several efforts in liver steatosis estimation (Kumagai et al 2014) or in general speed of sound measurements (Gyöngy and Kollár 2015). In addition to speckle based analysis, other researchers have used seismology based methods (Anderson et al 2000), triangulation or biprisms (Chen et al 1987; Robinson et al 1991), and tomographically determined phase shifts within the imaged area from different viewing angles (Jaeger et al 2015).…”

Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases: I. A Novel Approach to the Quantification of the Longitudinal Speed of Sound and Its Potential for Tissue Characterization

“…The speed of sound in normal human tissues varies significantly; it ranges from roughly 1430 m/s in breast tissue to 1647 m/s in muscle (Gyongy and Kollar 2015; Mamou and Oelze 2013). Despite this variation, clinical ultrasound scanners typically use an assumed speed of sound (1540 m/s) for image reconstruction.…”

“…This assumption has several drawbacks. Since the assumed speed of sound determines the transmit and receive beamforming delay patterns, errors can lead to an aberration in the wavefront and acoustic beamshape and a shift in the location of the peak acoustic response (Anderson et al 2000; Gyongy and Kollar 2015; Napolitano et al 2006; Qu et al 2012). A spatial shift of the intended focal zone, especially during receive beamforming, widens the associated point spread function (PSF) and changes the speckle characteristics in the ultrasound image (Anderson et al 2000; Napolitano et al 2006; Qu et al 2012).…”

“…A spatial shift of the intended focal zone, especially during receive beamforming, widens the associated point spread function (PSF) and changes the speckle characteristics in the ultrasound image (Anderson et al 2000; Napolitano et al 2006; Qu et al 2012). Consequently, overall image quality is degraded due to an increase in lateral beam width, which reduces corresponding lateral resolution and ability to detect and resolve point targets and low contrast lesions (Anderson et al 2000; Gyongy and Kollar 2015). The impact of speed of sound errors is exacerbated by use of low f-number transducers with higher transducer frequencies, i.e.…”

“…A second and, perhaps more important, result of the ability to accurately and consistently predict the speed of sound in vivo lies in tissue characterization. The longitudinal speed of sound is often affected by tissue pathology (Bamber and Hill 1981; Gyongy and Kollar 2015; Imbault et al 2017; Kumagai et al 2014; Mamou and Oelze 2013; Qu et al 2012). Consider, for example, the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is characterized by diffuse infiltration of fat into the hepatocytes of the liver.…”